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Video: Bruce Springsteen, “Death To My Hometown”

Watching Bruce Springsteen in 2012, as I had the pleasure of doing last week, is like watching a mixture of Elvis, Jimmy Hoffa and Henry Rollins. He has endless energy, is wildly pissed about the state of the world and is frothing to tell you about it in song. It is a blessing that he is still making such potent music—a sadly necessary re-imagining of his song for Amadou Diallo, "American Skin (41 Shots)," in the wake of Trayvon Martin's shooting was especially poignant. His new album, Wrecking Ball, addresses the economic crisis head-on, but from the ground up, using the voices of the people most affected. "Death To My Hometown" handles a city's crumbling under lack of industry pretty literally and viscerally, relying on an Irish march backbone that could ably sub for a Pogues tune in a pinch. The video was filmed live and features Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine shredding.